Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most devastating ones. This horrible disease can leave people without identity, and the worst thing is that we still do not know how to cure. Many scientists have spent years researching Alzheimer’s, attempting to come up with a cure, but there was a lack of results so far.
However, a new theory is starting to appear. The reason why so many research groups were not able to find a treatment might be the fact that we do not know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s. However, many researchers seemed to indicate that so far they were not allowed to test out other theories.
Looking in the wrong direction
Most Alzheimer’s scientists believe that the “amyloid cascade hypothesis” is the real one, and they state that there is plenty of proof to support it. However, not everyone agrees with that theory. One of them is Professor Bryce Vissel, director of neuroscience and regenerative medicine at the University of Technology Sydney.
“It’s been 100 years of the amyloid hypothesis. The treatments that have been in development are consistently failing. There is a growing sense that maybe we need to rethink the direction of the field,” he explained.
Professor Vissel wrote a paper on amyloid which appears to disagree with everything that researchers have said so far. In fact, he believes that this theory remains unproven, but the fact that most scientists support it made people consider it an absolute truth.
He also added that one of the reasons why the amyloid theory is so attractive is because it is quite simple. According to this hypothesis, there is a literal plaque on the brain and that is the reason why mental functions are affected. However, Professor Vissel also calls attention to the fact that there are healthy persons who have those plaques and people with dementia who do not have them, which seems to invalidate the popular theory.
